Desecration of the dead defies religious teachings

The outrage over a video allegedly showing U.S. marines urinating on
dead Taliban fighters provided Americans with a disturbing reminder that
war can reduce men to revenge-seeking brutality that defies human
norms.

It's nothing new: the desecration of enemy soldiers during
the Civil War, Japanese soldiers during World War II, North Vietnamese
fighters during the Vietnam War and Iraqis and Afghans in the most
recent conflicts is well documented.

Such acts have religious
implications. "Virtually all religions have reverence for the dead.
Different religions, especially the monotheistic faiths, don't accept
any desecration of their own dead, or the enemy's dead," said Carl
Raschke, a religious studies professor at the University of Denver.

For
example, Muslims believe that after death their bodies will slowly
disintegrate, except the tailbone, which on the day of resurrection will
regenerate into the complete human being. For that reason, most Muslims
reject cremation because it destroys the tailbone, making resurrection
impossible. Still others believe that the resurrected body will appear
as it did at the moment of death, and for that reason they fear and
condemn desecration of the dead.

Within Islam, desecration of
enemy war dead was forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad himself. When
warriors mutilated dead Muslim soldiers during one battle, Muhammad
commanded his soldiers not to do the same. At another battle, the
opposing army offered to pay Muslims for the return of one of its famed
warriors. Muhammad responded, "I do not sell dead bodies. You can take
away the corpse of your fallen comrade."

"It's considered a sin
and a crime," said Imam Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of the Fiqh Council
of North America, which interprets Islamic law.

Respect for the
dead has been a core teaching within Christianity, in part because of
belief in bodily resurrection. Christian churches have softened on
cremation in recent years as the practice becomes more popular.

"The
bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith
and hope of the Resurrection," the catechism of the Catholic Church
teaches. "The burial of the dead is a corporal act of mercy; it honors
the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit."

Hindus
believe that the soul, or Atman, leaves the body at the moment of death,
starting a journey to the next life. The condition of the body has no
impact upon the soul's journey or its ultimate destiny, but a dead
person has to be properly cremated under specific funeral rites if the
departed soul is to have a peaceful journey to the next life.

"It
is believed that if the dead body is not properly cremated, the journey
of that soul is disrupted or becomes difficult," said Dileep Thatte,
founder of the Seven Stars of Hinduism, a nonprofit group in Chicago
that educates people about Hinduism.

"There is nothing
whatsoever in the Vedic literature that promotes desecration of war
dead," explained Bhupender Gupta, a Hindu priest in Cary, North
Carolina. "These are humans, brethren, who performed their duties as
commanded."

Zulu warriors were famous for disemboweling their
foes, but not out of revenge or brutality. Rather, Zulus believed that a
bloating decomposing body signified spirits trying to escape the
corpse. Zulus believed that if they did not release the spirits of their
victims, they would suffer the same fate.

Within Judaism, mutilating a dead body—even through an autopsy—is also strictly forbidden.

Nancy
Sherman, a philosophy professor at Georgetown University who
specializes in war ethics, ventured a guess as to why people worry about
human remains. In a CNN.com commentary about the return of dead
soldiers' bodies to their loved ones, she wrote that "we want something
of that for our dead, so that we can mark an honorable passage from this
world."

The various military branches follow similar guidelines
on how to handle enemy dead. "Desecration is not tolerated in any way,
shape or form," said Lt. Col. Joe Kloppel, a U.S. Marine Corps
spokesman. While there is no way to ensure that marines read or practice
the prohibition against desecration, Kloppel said, "it's made very
clear to marines at various levels what's right and what's wrong." —RNS